Pasco Letters to the Editor for July 13

Thursday 5 July 2018 14.14

Scaring birds with fireworks

is a problem

The justification of buying fireworks to scare birds is the biggest problem with fireworks. My wife and I retired to a small pond across from a nature preserve. On a recent holiday, we were enjoying watching birds from our deck when someone started shooting fireworks over the pond. About 35 birds leaped into the air.

It has now been more than a year, and we still are struggling to see even a fraction of the birds we saw before those fireworks.

Joel Jackson,Land Oí Lakes

Donít use taxpayer dollars to cut down trees

With all of the trees lost in Hurricane Irma last year, it is unbelievable that the Pasco County Parks Department chopped down at least 10 live oak trees at the J. Ben Harrill Recreation Complex in Holiday. Three of these oaks were of grand size.

Pasco County already has weak tree ordinances that favor developersí profits over the lives of large trees. Is county government exempt from these rules? Do they need permits to chop down large, healthy trees in county parks?

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I can understand trimming branches, but destroying trees is unconscionable. Is the parks department so flush with money it needs to find work and pay employees to destroy our parks? The federal and state governments already are rolling back environmental protections; we do not need the county government contributing to the problem.

Taxpayer money should not be used to impact our dwindling green spaces in Pasco County. Leave that job to the developers, road builders and timber barons.